how does everyone here have these big thumbnails in the gallery that are still under 5 kb, i mean even with my puney thumbnails i am struggling to get under. i mean i could super compress it, but then it doesn't come out good, and the thumnails i've seen are really clear looking with no bad jpeg compression. so, what's your secret?

What are you useing to make your thumbs with ?? I use ACDSee and it makes pretty good 5 to 10 kb thumbs. I tried useing Adobe Photoshop but i had the same problums you did so i switched. Another thing to try is, start with a smaller image . If you try to thumb say a 2000 X 2000 image your thumbs going to be pretty bad. Reduce it to say 800X600 then thumb that one.

I use Photoshop for thumbs. You need to resize your image to get the desired thumbnail size, then instead of clicking 'save as' you can use 'save for web'. Works well for me :) Niu

I use PSP, when I go to save my thumbnail and I think it has to be 15kb or less. When the save box comes up I click on options and set the compression to 5 or 7 vs the compression of 1 when saving my image for posting. Brenda :)

I do the same as Brenda (Nilla), but always set the compression to 5 which seems to be enough. Although my thumb are only 150x99, i guess for 200x200 youll need a bit of extra compression :o) If you use photoshop listen to Niutek :o)

I use the "Save for web" option and click on a little arrow in the box and optimize to 14.5k so I get the best quality without going over the size limit.

I use also photoshop, but I use always the same size for each thumbnail, so I drag it into the "example" that's the way I do it and change the option when it is to big in very high Ilona

wow thanks alot

i didn't expect so many replies, in the wings3d forum ig et a reply like once every other day

if you don't have these options you can also try: www.irfanview.com/ www.fookes.com/ -program is called Easy Thumbs both are free

I got picasa but haven't checked out its output options yet. Does anybody know about its jpeg quality?

Each one will be a different size depending on the amount of detail in your image. I always use the Save for Web option in Photoshop and adjust as Tobin says. Adobe Imagready does the same things too. Don't know about any other software.

I use Photoshop too!! Works perfectly well for me! And I also resize them from the high res pics, from 2000x1500 pixel to 200 and save for the web at about 80% quality! Works wonder! ;)

All said...I use Photoshop as it seems to reduce and save at a much better quality in low compression.

In Photoshop I'll resize my image to thumbnail proportions, select all, copy, then file/new. This will create a new blank image file the same size as the one I just copied. Then I will paste into it, and save. This usually lets me save at a higher quality because the file size is smaller. I don't know why but it seems to be the case. What is a "noob"?

means newbie , as in some one new to this .

Ahhhh. Lol, IMO this now makes sence.. Thanks tasquah. ;-)

I too use Photoshop and then "Save for web", usually dont have to go any lower than 70%. Another thing ive noticed is that you can often get the filesize reduced if you before use "Save for web" first merge all layers...that is if youre working with layers. Ah well. Looks like you got enough good pointers so consider this just some random ramble, LOL. #:O)....P.S. Why do you want the thumb size to be below 5kb? The limit for the gallery is 15kb....

Message edited on: 08/23/2005 07:32

Maybe he wants to do his part in helping the gallery pages load faster. :) If your thumb doesn't need 14.9K, then why not save it at a smaller size to help speed up browsing. It isn't much, but all adds up. Many people still aren't on a high-speed connection. Another tip to help keep the size down is to use an noise reduction filter on the image before saving for the web. It doesn't effect the thumbs much, but I've cut 40k to 80k off some images just by doing that. Just a random ramble. =]

i'm sorry to break your hopes and dreams of a perfect world for people with modem, but i wa just unobservant and thought for no apparent reason that it said 5 kb. but i'll keep them down to 13 just for you

Thanks, you're a peach. ;-]

LOL! #:oD

He is right....saving small does not do much damage to the thumb, and keeps the site faster for everyone. This is why I made the challenge thumbs 100x80 and keep them (or try) to around 5kb or less.

I use both photoshop an psp. For thumbs, I generally take the image, copy and paste as a new image, then resize to the thumb size. The prob might be in the options used to resize the image more than the compression of jpg. Then, in PSP, I go to export>optomize image jpg and work with the window to get a file just under the 15kb allowed. Generally my thumbs run from about 9 to even 5kb! This is little stuff but it looks ok as a thumbnail image. See if you have any options for the "method" of resizing the image in the first place. Several different computer ways do resizing, some taking more away from the clarity and look of the image than others. TomDart.